


Arcane

by Vixen_Argentum



Series: Solve et Coagula [3]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Genderbending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-01
Updated: 2014-08-01
Packaged: 2018-02-11 09:27:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2062848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vixen_Argentum/pseuds/Vixen_Argentum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Genderbending for the UraMayu fanfic 100.</p>
<p>    "And She knows, because She warns him, and Her instincts never fail, <br/>    That the Female of Her Species is more deadly than the Male."  <br/>                                                                                            --Rudyard Kipling</p>
            </blockquote>





	Arcane

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Eyvindr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eyvindr/gifts), [zeroh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeroh/gifts).



> GENDERBENDY TIIIIIIIME! 084.He and 085.She are het and yuri counterparts to Urahara/Mayuri
> 
> Written with Eyvindr and zeroh in mind. 
> 
> Everybody who does Ura/Mayu genderbendy work always flips Mayuri’s gender to make it an M/F pair. But, let’s be honest. There is no clear-cut reason for “Mr. Atashi” to be the masculine one. 
> 
> In fact, I’d go as far as saying that Mayuri has the clearer cut gender identity. Some things about both of them get a bit lost in translation…but more of Urahara is lost than Mayuri, IMO. The English language fandom and the Japanese language fandom have a real disconnect on how they perceive Urahara as a person sometimes.
> 
> Anyhow, here goes! <3
> 
> Prompt: 084.He.  
> Title: Arcane  
> Characters: Fem!Urahara/Mayuri, mentions of Male!Yoruichi  
> Warning: Genderbending (duh!), some innuendo…but very tame, really

 

Mayuri’s ears perked up at the sounds of the ruckus that ensued out in the common area. 

_Crack!_

The table had broken again.  This seemed to happen at least twice a week.

_Thump!_

_Let me guess,_ thought Mayuri.  _Somebody out there has lost his mind again and is now sprawled across the floor like a fool._   He really was in here with the idiots.

The noise outside calmed down, and there was silence for a good five seconds before the next sound started.  The clacking of pair of wooden heeled stilettos, with a design that impersonated geta, that raised her into a truly Amazonian height.  Or like a “model” as the whispers always put it.  But, Urahara was very much not a model—for all the style shown in her spectacular shoes, she was decidedly natural in routine.  Ripping off the hangnails when they got too long or rough was about the height of her couture. 

“Hey Mayuri-san!  I’m sorry to keep you waiting!”

_Oh, hell_. 

Mayuri looked down.  If he ignored her, she would go away, if he ignored her…

She leaned in through the bars of his cell, like an overzealous golden retriever trying to shove her nose through a crack in a partially rolled down window.  In fact, he could almost hear the feathery tail _thump-thump-thump-_ ing against the bars.

“Ma—yu –ri—san!”

Well, he never said that ignoring her ever worked.

“I suppose I cannot convince you to go away, can I, jailer?”

She grinned.  “Nobody gets rid of me so easily.”  She flipped the switch so that the bars of the cell retracted back into their sheathes, moving to sit next to Mayuri on his bench.  “Especially not when there’s so much work to do!”

“I brought you something!”  She cheerfully produced a book—but Mayuri had no idea where it came from, nor did he want to know.  She hadn’t been carrying anything in her hands… and it was rather large in size, too.

 The cover read in tiny gold-leaf leaf letters _Seireitei Reports from the Annals of Kidou-Based Research Vol 28.2_ with another set of stamps later added, _Year of the Golden Tiger._ In a red ink stamp across the entire bottom half, a warning hat screamed RESTRICTED—CAPTAIN CLEARANCE ONLY. 

Vol 28.2…no, that couldn’t be.  

When Mayuri had snooped around about it when he was still at the academy, from the archive master, he had heard that this book was no longer in the restricted section.  She said that it had been destroyed after the information therein caused a set of failed experiments, in line with the process of published science that was later found to be reported with false results.  Curiously, the database recordings of how these experiments had failed was also missing. 

The harder that Mayuri had pressed for the information, the harder the administration had shoved back, and soon after, he had come home to find the door to his apartment open and his rooms in disarray—furniture torn apart, ceramics broken, and several notebooks filled with years of precious research stolen that he had never found again.  He blamed the open door on the black cat that had wandered in and was lazing across his windowsill…but something seemed off about it.  It seemed like it was listening to everything that Mayuri said in his reactions to the destruction, ears swiveled to face him, even though at first glance the cat seemed to be watching the birds outside.  When he threw a ceramic shard at the cat, it had dodged a little too quickly, in a somersaulting way that he had never before witnessed in a feline.

His blood boiled to remember, so Mayuri did as he usually did and calmly blocked it out.

Her arm fell across his back, pulling him uncomfortably close as she rested her chin on his shoulder.  Mayuri blushed a bit under the paint, registering her right breast pressing against his back, squishing harder as she inhaled, and the fact that her hands were now resting over his as she paged through the book, her breath pulsing against his collarbone.  He squirmed in his seat, but she settled in deeper, filling in even more cracks between them that Mayuri didn’t realize were there. 

“You know,” said Urahara.  “I’ve always wanted to read this book, but I’ve never had a very good reason.  It’s a good thing that I managed to convince Yoruichi-taichou to pick this up for me—he wouldn’t give it up to me until I provided him with enough successful evidence.”

Yes, Yoruichi-taichou was well known for being particularly sympathetic to his best friend’s causes, as they strangely usually panned out in his favor.

Urahara continued.  “However, only I have the clearance to look at it—it is set to only open when I touch it.”

“I see,” said Mayuri.  “I assume that is why you’re practically straddling me.”

“Hmmm,” said Urahara.  “Perhaps.  At least, that could be part of it, anyway.”

Mayuri swallowed hard.   It had been a very long time since he had been this close to another being, even Urahara who made it her business to ignore his personal space, for this amount of time. 

“But also, before I forget!”  Urahara flipped to the final page of the book, pulling out several folded papers from a pocket affixed to the back cover.  “Do you remember looking for a set of experiments that had been removed from the archives?  It would have been not long before you were placed in here…”

Mayuri’s eyes widened as she unfolded them.  Some of them were typed lab reports, and others were…

 “Those experiments missing from the archives were never failures,” Urahara said.  The playful singsong edge to her voice had dropped into something steely, serious.

Some of the pages contained Mayuri’s neatly written script, notes made beside his words in a messy freehand that he recognized from a mile away.  Those missing journals!

Urahara felt the involuntary jolt of recognition that had occurred under her body.

“All of your theory work also panned out in my subsequent experiments,” she said, gravely.  “How would you like to move into the next phase of design?”

 “Of course.”  Mayuri snipped.  “You’re the one who has stolen my work and plagiarized it in your own experiments.  If I don’t have first authorship on any future results, I have the grounds to sue you for more than your detention head salary is worth.”

“I haven’t published a thing, you should know that,”  Urahara remarked.  “And of course, for that data, your name will be first.”  Whether she seemed genuinely hurt at the accusation, Mayuri couldn’t tell.  But she paused before purring, “Anything subsequent, we’ll grapple over it later.”

Mayuri ran his hands over hers on the book, entwining them, using her fingers to manipulate the pages.  He calmly observed the diagrams as they fluttered by.  This was a wondrous book, better than he had imagined in the first place.

But more than that, this was a _terrifying_ woman.


End file.
